The AHL gives us an interesting testbed for goaltending statistics – while the NHL gives very few reps to goaltenders who are below replacement level, the AHL is primary below-replacement goalies, along with NHL-caliber goalies who have yet to be promoted. Here are the totals over the last six seasons:
| Goals | Shots | Sv% | |
| NHL Total | 2078 | 6347 | 673 |
| AHL Total | 2480 | 7884 | 685 |
| AHL No NHL | 823 | 2569 | 680 |
| < 300 Shots | 827 | 2551 | 676 |
| > 300 Shots | 830 | 2764 | 700 |
The first line is the save percentage for all shootout shots taken in the NHL; line 2 is for the AHL. Line 3 is the AHL save percentage by goaltenders who did not play in the NHL; Line 4 is for players who faced 1-300 shots in the NHL; and Line 5 is essentially goaltenders who became regulars in the NHL. It's very likely that there's a true talent difference between those two groups.
Incidentally, if we look at goaltenders who faced between 25% and 75% of their total shootout shots in the NHL, they posted a 718 save percentage in the AHL and a 677 save percentage in the NHL. This is obviously in a much smaller sample size, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was also a not-insignificant difference in shooter skill in the NHL vs the AHL!
